Episode 55: Endemic Clan Warfare and Beautiful Lakes

September 6th, 2013 | Robin

After a prefatory Travel Advisory on their activities at FanExpo Canada and a Food Hut trawl through the gustatory delight’s of Robin’s neighborhood, Ken and Robin take a nostalgic look back over the haul of treasures secured in Toronto for Ken’s Bookshelf. Gangsters, pirates and ancient Americans flood into the Hite Memorial Library as we learn the secret graphic signifier that announces the presence of prime crazy.

In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Rob Heinsoo swings by the podcast to discuss the design process for 13th Age, as seen through the lens of traps and their evolving role in fantasy roleplaying.

Finally we enter the Gaming Hut to consider techniques for collaborative worldbuilding. That last segment idea comes courtesy of this episode’s lead sponsor, Genesis of Legend Publishing, and itsSpark RPG.

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Barbary Pirates have just shown up in our current Trail of Cthulhu campaign, in the person of Jan Janszoon, aka Murat Reis the younger. He controlled Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel for 5 years in the 17th Century. I think he may feature in your purchase.

A question for the ask segment: I’ve fallen badly behind on recent developments in roleplaying. If I were to pick up 5 titles from the last 5 years or so to get up to date on what’s happening in the art form, which ones would you recommend?

Could Ken’s Time Machine go back to Japan, circa 1919-1925 to stop (or slow) the rising of the right-wing expansionists that eventually lead Japan into war with China, and on a collision course with the US, England, France, and the Netherlands? I note that Japan was an Ally in WWI and received a hefty amount of intelligence help from England to track the Tsar’s fleet during the Russio-Japan war of 1904-05. Could Japan have remained an ally in WWII?

I have a business trip to Toronto next week and need your opinion: if you had to pick between La Bella Managua or Le Ti Colibri for dinner which would you recommend? I am pretty sure I can maneuver the team dinner to Smokes but that leaves me one night free to try one of the other two so I’d appreciate a recommendation.

The Players and the Game, by Julian SymonsThe Name of Annabel Lee, by Julian SymonsIn Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954, by Isaac AsimovJackal: The Complete Story of the Legendary Terrorist Carlos the Jackal, by John FollainThe Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of an American Gang, by Natalie Moore and Lance WilliamsPirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests, and Captivity in the 17th-century Mediterranean, by Adrian TinniswoodGladio: NATO’s Dagger at the Heart of Europe: The Pentagon-Nazi-Mafia Terror Axis, by Richard CottrellTongs, Gangs, and Triads: Chinese Crime Groups in North America, by Peter HustonThe Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered North America, by Paul ChiassonThe Lost Worlds of Ancient America, edited by Frank JosephWho Killed Abraham Lincoln? by Paul Serup

To complete the bibliography of the episode since I have been lax and not keeping up to date ….

Movies:
The Day of the Jackal by Fred Zinnemann
Carlos by Olivier Assayas

More Books:
Michael Bradley – The Holy Grail Across the Atlantic: The Secret History of Canadian Discovery and Exploration.
Frederick Forsyth – The Day of the Jackal
Matthew Goodman – The Sun and the Moon
Robert Ludlum – Bourne Ultimatum
Gavin Menzies – 1421: The Year China Discovered America